We see every day new technologies coming out to market but a few of those technologies are focused for people with special needs.

We have just finalized a research project called GuideBelt. It is simply a Bluetooth-based indoor navigation system for the visually impaired.

The GuideBelt, which is the product of this research, is such a solution that takes advantage of cheap Bluetooth beacons attached to places/objects of interest within an indoor space.

The implementation of the GuideBelt that has been the focus of this work is an early prototype, which uses phones to simulate the Bluetooth receivers (coupled with a vibration module). This was to allow us to focus on development of the algorithm rather than electronics. Therefore, the direction of this research is towards the implementation of the system with the actual technology necessary meaning with assembled electronic components (including Bluetooth modules and vibrators).

We have also wrote a research paper of our experiment that contains important details of the project.

We have made a little image site to present some images of the development:

In this paper we describe the concept, development and reflection for Pervasive Computing course (Spring 2015) at IT University of Copenhagen
where we built a context-aware mobile phone utilizing an iBeacon infrastructure.